


Punch My Clock (Make It Count)

by Cartwheellou



Series: After Summer's End [2]
Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Bullying, Don't give children knives, Gen, Good Friends, middle school life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-13 07:36:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16013300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cartwheellou/pseuds/Cartwheellou
Summary: Max wouldn't say he didn't care when he had heard that Neil got bullied. But it was summer, and they were at camp, and maybe friends just didn't matter as much then as they do now. Whatever the reason, it had slipped his immediate interest. That is not the case right now.Someone is picking on Max's friend. Unluckily for them, he and Nikki have an awful lot to say about it.





	Punch My Clock (Make It Count)

**Author's Note:**

> This is related to and takes place after Pull Back Up (the Vestiges of Summer), the first installment of After Summer's End, but reading that one is not strictly essential to enjoying this one.

“Nikki, something’s been bothering me for a while,” Max started conversationally, lying on his back. It was late April now; Max had subscribed to the routine of visiting his friends each weekend on an alternating basis, so he found himself in Nikki’s backyard at the time.

“What is it?” she asked, near at his side.

“The first time I visited Neil—back in March—he said he was still getting bullied really badly.” A cloud moved aside, beaming sun directly into Max’s face and causing him to squint. He dragged a hand upwards to shield his face.

She hummed, and Max could detect the faint shiftings her shrugging. “It’s not  _ that _ surprising. He told us he’d been bullied for years.”

“Yeah, back at camp. But now school’s in session again, and it’s happening  _ right now _ .”

“It’s the weekend, Max.”

“No shit, Nikki—I mean it’s gonna happen on Monday, and it happened last Friday, and it’s been happening all year and it’s gonna happen until school is out. Neil told me about those kids, Nikki. There’s four of ‘em; that’s bullshit.”

“Yeah.”

Max rolled over onto his side to glare at her; she turned her face to meet it. “Come on, Nikki, what kind of friend are you? I thought I was supposed to be the shithead, here.”

“Well whaddya want me to do about it? We don’t go to school with Neil; it’s not like we can beat them up for him.”

Max grinned at her. “Can’t we?”

She blinked at him blankly before beaming, sitting up with shining eyes. “Oh, I know that smirk! What’s your plan?!” She bounced in her seat.

“That depends. How dedicated are you to going to school on Monday?”

“Not at all, chief!”

“How upset would your mom be if we hopped on a bus right now and rode it on over to Neil’s place?”

She scrambled to her feet. “I won’t know til later if I leave her a note!” She raced for her backdoor before Max could utter another word, the screen clapping shut behind her and rummaging noises echoing from within the kitchen. Max slowly put his feet under him, watching the back of the house. Two days to plan and three chaotic geniuses—he could work with this.

 

* * *

 

Homeroom started as abysmally early as usual, students sitting in their desks dull brained, lined up like neat little puppets. Slight chatter was mingling about between those that actually had friends; Neil sat in the front corner, studiously watching his finger tap on the desk. He wouldn’t need to pay attention for at least another half-hour, as homeroom was the most useless class ever to be invented. Ms. Reddy never did anything with the block; she just worked on her computer. Neil usually didn’t complain, taking the opportunity to sleep, but he couldn’t will his eyes to shut, or even muster any sort of sleepiness. He was left to his own anticipation, itchy underneath his skin. 

“Neil?” Ms. Reddy called from her desk in the back of the room. Neil jolted straight up, fingers curling into a fist as he twisted about to spy his teacher. “Can you come here, please?”

Neil slid out of his seat with easy willingness; he walked along the row of desks towards his teacher. Eyes tracked his path, a few kids oohing and ahhing with the assumption he was about to get in trouble for something. He couldn’t fight off an extra little skip in his step as he leapt to stand in front of Ms. Reddy’s desk. “What is it, Ms. Reddy?” he asked cheekily.

She raised a skeptical eyebrow at him. “I received an email that said you signed up for some middle school exchange program? There are two kids coming from nearby middle schools that you’re to show around today; is this correct?”

“Yep.” He rocked up on his toes, keeping his hands clasped behind his back.

She sighed, clicking a few things on her screen. Her mouse made audible taps. “I didn’t even know we  _ had  _ this program—you’re sure?”

“Absolutely. Are the they here?”

“Yes, they’re in the office now. I suppose I’ll… call to have them sent down here.”

“Awesome. Great.” Neil spun on his heel and sauntered back to his seat, humming lightly. Conspiratorial whispers started up in the back of the room by those that had heard their short conversation, spreading to Randall’s group over on the right. He could feel Randall’s eyes follow him across the room—Neil would be more worried if he didn’t know his friends were hardly a stone’s throw away.

As soon as Neil sat down Ms. Reddy was leaving the room, the tightly coiled phone cord leading out the door as a signal of her brief departure. The attention of the room momentarily swayed there before again returning to their previous engagements. “Hey Neil,” Randall hissed across to him, louder than a stage whisper.

Neil turned to him, smirking. “What?”

“You’re showing around a couple of losers today?”

“Oh yeah. All day long.”

Randall sneered. “Don’t think that just because there’s gonna be a couple extra kids hanging around you’re gonna go free today; I told you. I’m here  _ every. Day. _ ”

Neil’s smile didn’t drop. “I’m counting on it.”

Ms. Reddy came back in the room, hanging the phone up and moving back over to her desk. Neil watched as she sat down again, hand straight gluing itself to her mouse as she resumed computer work. Foot bouncing, Neil was turned about in his seat and studiously locked onto the door handle, willing it to turn. Turn. Turn.

The clock ticked by twice before the door was blasted open, handle smacking into the wall with a bang and causing everybody in the room to jump. Neil leapt straight out of his seat, hardly keeping his feet rooted as a familiar green-haired being jumped into the room, shouting, “NEIL!” She almost motored straight towards him but was grabbed by Max at the last second and yanked to a halt, cuffed sharply on the back of the head. “I mean—which one of you is Neil?!”

“That’s me,” Neil replied eagerly, walking up as fast as he dared to meet them. Nikki ripped her wrist from Max’s hold and sprinted towards him, barely grinding to a halt. She backed a step up, hand springing out like the stop bar in front of train tracks.

“Hi! My name’s Nikki! This is Max!” Max plodded up next to her, face completely impassive and hands jammed in his hoodie pocket. “It’s very nice to meet you!”

“Hello.” Neil took her hand and was subjugated to being violently shaken for a short span. When she let him go he drew his hand back, shaking out the small pains. “Nice to meet you, too. I’m glad you could come.”

Ms. Reddy manifested behind the group as teachers can do, clapping a hand down on the two ‘exchange’ student’s shoulders. Max tensed, barely withholding a flinch. “Class, this is Nikki and Max.”

“Yeah, I’m sure they all heard,” Max muttered.

“They’re from a single day middle school exchange program, so they’re other 6th graders from nearby middle schools. They’ll be with us all day, so please treat them kindly. ”

“Right.” Nikki laughed awkwardly. “Max and I are  _ totally _ 6th graders!”

“Can it, Nikki,” Max hissed.

“Our first block will be starting in 15 minutes, so just sit tight until then and get to know Neil! You’ll be spending all day together, after all!”

Max grinned. “That sounds just swell, Ms. Neil’s teacher! We’ll be sure to do that.” He grabbed Nikki and Neil by the wrists and dragged them over towards Neil’s desk. Neil’s sleeve bit into his wrist from the tight hold and he stumbled from the sharpness which he was tugged along by, but he couldn’t wipe the grin off his face. Nikki was skipping along beside him, leaping joyfully in the air.

Max pulled them to a halt in front of Neil’s seat, the nearby students gazing up at the trio from their chairs. He released his friends, returning his hands to his pockets and smiling down at Neil’s seat neighbors in a manner that was more baring his teeth than anything. A small thrill shot through Neil at watching those shitheads flinch. “It’s nice to meet you,” Max greeted, sickly sugar coating his tone. Of course, Ms. Reddy couldn’t see the demonic shadow cast over his eyes. “Do you mind moving for today? It’d be nice if Nikki and I could sit next to Neil.”

The kids that sat beside and behind Neil fled without a backwards glance, scrambling towards to corners of the room where stray chairs were kept. Max grabbed the table attachment of the desk and swung it so it was facing Neil’s, chair feet grating against the floor loudly. “My bad,” Max shrugged, falling into the seat and sending it sliding an extra few inches. Nikki and Neil were a bit kinder, picking up their desks to turn them. Well, Neil was kind—Nikki slammed hers down, scooting it closer by kicking her legs with obnoxious pulsing screeches.

Max leaned forward, head inclined towards Neil. “Okay, Neil, where are the dickwads?”

Neils shoved his chin over Max’s shoulder back towards Randall and his groupees. “It’s that big kid in the green shirt and the three kids around him.”

Nikki snorted, covering her mouth with her hands. “Neil, have you been getting picked on by girls?”

Neil glared at her. “Yes, in fact, I have! You of all people should know girls are plenty capable of being veritable  _ assholes _ !”

Max swatted at the shrugging girl. “Focus! That’s beside the point. All four are here today?” He was the only one not facing towards the group.

Neil’s eyes swept over the gang, lips curling up in distaste. Max flickered his gaze down to Neil’s fisted hands, knuckles pale. “All four.”

Max smirked. “Good, then they all get  _ first _ hand experience. Don’t worry, Neil—none of them will ever try any shit with you again by the time  _ we’re _ done with them.”

 

* * *

 

The first act of their plan had gone out without a hitch, as no one in Neil’s class suspected they were his backup. The second act was yet to occur, as it would take place at lunch. They quickly discovered, however, there was a large portion of time they had forgotten to plan for—that is, classes. And teachers.

“So, Max and Nikki, can you tell me what you were learning in your Social Studies classes at your middle schools?” Ms. Reddy asked, dragging over an unused chair from the corner. “And what middle schools do you come from?”

Neil rolled his eyes. It was the nature of a teacher to insert themselves into the student body with unwanted questions.

“I’m from, uh, South Central Middle School!” Nikki supplied cheerfully.

“Where’s that?” Ms. Reddy questioned. “That’s not a school from our district.”

“I’m sorry, she’s confused,” Max interjected bluntly. “That’s the school her cousin goes to in Sun City. Of course,  _ we live very close to Bulhaloo _ .” Nikki flinched from a kick to her shin. “We’re from… um—”

“They’re from Water Horse!” Neil laughed awkwardly. “Yep.”

“Oh; I actually know the 6th grade Social Studies teacher there. How is Mr. Finnick?”

“Oh—yeah. Mr. Finnick. He’s great,” Max nodded.

“That’s good to hear. I heard he’s been having a hard time since the accident, but I’m glad to know it hasn’t been affecting his ability to work.”

Max coughed. “Yep.”

“So, what are you guys learning about right now? We’re doing Mesopotamia, but I know that different schools do the order a bit different.”

“Uhh… the American Revolution?” Max tried, shrugging.

“But… that’s 8th grade curriculum.”

“Then—… oh, I’m not so good at Social Studies,” Max admitted, bottom lip pouted out perfectly. “It’s something that reminds me an awful lot of the American Revolution—we just started it, I’m not so sure what it’s called. I’m sorry; Mr. Finnick gets mad at me, too.”

“Oh, no, it’s alright Max,” Ms. Reddy comforted, entirely strung along. “I know he’s sometimes a tad temperamental, but I’m sure he appreciates that you try.”

“Really?” He looked up at her through his lashes, batting his eyes.

“Really.”

“That’s great. I’m sure that’s why he always gives me extra time to work—because he knows I need it and will make the most of every second he gives me.”

Ms. Reddy started, looking to the clock. “Oh no, I’ve been distracting you three for five minutes! I’ll leave you to your work; Neil is the brightest in the class, so I’m sure he can help you if you have any problems with the reading.” She looked around like she was waiting for them all to nod or something, so they did. She left to continue her rounds of the room, making her way through the small pockets of kids that had clumped together to work, dragging her chair behind her.

“Ugh,” Max groaned, propping his head up with a hand on his cheek. “God, I hate teachers. I mean, at least the ones at my  _ own _ school  _ expect _ me to be a little shit, but I now I gotta act like some fucking golden child.”

“I thought you were about to start gagging or something,” Nikki tittered.

“Yeah, I honestly didn’t know you had that in you, Max.”

“Well, if some random lady found out we were lying this early on, that would just be straight up pathetic. I’d hope we’d at least get a  _ little _ farther than your first class.” Max picked up his pencil, twirling it around in his fingers. It danced across his knuckles, clearly a practiced distraction. “Hey, do we actually have to do this bullshit?”

“Uh, you and Nikki might not have to, but  _ I  _ do,” Neil glared, tapping his own lead on the page. “This is  _ actually _ my class.”

Nikki squinted and attempted to scan the sheet. Her eyes flickered across the page, sharp and straight like typewriter lines. “I actually have no idea what any of this is saying or who any of these people are.”

“Then it’s a good thing you don’t have to. Now shut up and let me concentrate.” Neil lowered his head, comfortably resting his forehead on the heel of his palm. 

“But I’m bad at being quiet,” Nikki whined. “And sitting still. How long until lunch?”

“Classes only just started, genius,” Max noted, also attempting the reading. “Three hours, at least.”

“Lunch is at 11:32, but the clock in Ms. Newberry’s room is a minute slow so it’ll look like 11:33; she’s our class right before lunch,” Neil supplied.

“That’s  _ forever _ away,” she complained. “What am I supposed to do until then?”

“You could  _ try _ the reading again,” Neil snapped sarcastically. “You know, like you’re supposed to be doing?”

“Well who knew you were such a little soldier, Neil? I can barely stand 5th grade, what makes you think I can stand 6th?” Nikki retorted.

“I’ll be honest—even I have no idea what this is about,” Max shrugged.

“Hey, your teacher said that you were supposed to be helping us,” Nikki accused.

“Why do you guys even want to do this?”

“I mean, I’d usually do my best not to, but I can’t exactly be a menace if we want our plan to work,” Max answered.

“Yeah, we gotta lay low.”

Neil sighed. “I don’t really care what you do, just  _ let me work _ .”

“But  _ Neil _ , you have to teeeach uuuus,” Nikki whined, tugging on his arm.

“Jesus Christ, Nikki, fine!” Neil snapped, yanking his arm away. “But this means you’re going to do exactly what I say, right?”

“Right!”

“I promise nothing,” Max chimed in.

Neil rolled his eyes. “I don’t care if you decide listen or not, Max, but school is my bitch. Do what I say and you’ll be done before half of these morons pass question 3.”

“Wow, Neil. That almost sounded cool,” complemented Nikki.

“Shut up. Flip your page over and start reading the questions.”

 

* * *

 

The sharp twang of the bell cut through the trio’s conversation like a dying cat, causing Max and Nikki to jolt in their seats. The scrape of shifting chairs and exaggerated sighs of relief replaced the din of work time.

“What’s that bell for?” Max asked, eyes sweeping the ceiling and the rest of the class as everyone started to get out of their desks.

“Uh, the next class?” Neil joined his classmates, picking his binder up off the floor. “Oh, shit; you guys are still fifth graders. Didn’t you know that you move between classes in middle school?”

Max shrugged, still trying to keep everyone in his vision. “I mean, I guess? I didn’t really think about it.”

“Well hurry and stand up, you guys are supposed to be sixth graders.” Neil headed towards the door, Nikki and Max sticking close behind him as he pushed his way out into the already crowded hallway. He shot across towards an open space, entering the flow of traffic. Kids passed them by, paying no attention to their path as they traversed down the lawless street.

Max was tight to Neil’s back, dipping around meandering kids he would have otherwise run into. “Fucking hell, don’t people know how to walk?” he snapped, almost clipping someone Neil moved aside for at the last second.

“Short answer—no.” They cut across the hall to avoid a cluster of kids stagnant next to the wall, sticking halfway out into the path. “They also don’t know how to move, regulate their speed, or stick to one side of the hall.”

They zagged back across, continuing to swing around inconsiderate groups. “Uh, Neil? We aren’t sticking to one side of the hall,” Nikki pointed out.

“That’s only because it’s impossible to walk in a straight line when there are stopped people everywhere!”

A large boy emerged from the hoards, cutting through children like the bow of a ship. The seas parted for him as well as they could in the chaos, Neil dragging Max and Nikki off to the side so he could safely pass. He didn’t waver in his onward attention, mowing his way down the hall. A kid that wasn’t paying attention knocked shoulders with him and was sent stumbling into their friend.

“Christ, who’s that?” Max asked, sparing a backwards glance before again following Neil.

Neil rolled his eyes, eyebrows slanted downward. “An eighth grader,” he spat. “Ugh, I can’t wait until  _ I’m _ in eighth grade; then nobody would push me around in the hallway, especially if I was freakishly tall like that guy. Come on, our next class is right in here.” He ducked into an open door, Max and Nikki ducking in after him and exiting the stream of kids.

“Which class is this?” Nikki asked, gazing out over the groups of desks and the wall of whiteboard.

“Math,” Neil responded, heading over to a group on the far left, dodging around other seated people. He slid in, Max and Nikki taking chairs right next to him.

“Oh no. There’s gonna be some weird shit that Nikki and I totally won’t know, right?” Max questioned.

“Probably.”

Nikki groaned, propping her face up with a fist on her cheek. “But I can’t even do the math I’m supposed to know,” she complained.

“What, do you want me to teach you math, too?” Neil snarked, sitting back in his chair.

Nikki’s eyes rolled over to meet Neil’s. “Would you?” she pleaded. “My mom always says she’s too busy to help me with my homework, and my teacher’s starting to get mad that I never have it done.”

“I mean—I could, but shouldn’t you talk to your teacher about that, Nikki?”

“I tried, but she said I wasn’t trying hard enough,” she mourned. “It’s not my fault I can’t sit still in that room! It’s boring, and I’m right next to the window overlooking the playground!”

“That’s bullshit. Everyone knows you can never sit still,” agreed Max.

“Everyone but her.”

Someone cleared their throat behind them, causing all three to twist their heads around. “Excuse me,” a girl said, “but that’s my seat.”

“Jenny. You were here when Ms. Reddy introduced Max and Nikki to the class; they’re with me all day. Can’t you find somewhere else to go sit?”

Jenny lifted the corner of her lip. “Can’t you and your friends go find somewhere else to sit? Jason’s also going to be coming, and he’s not going to like having someone else in his seat.”

“Well, either the three of us move or the two of you move.”

“So get lost,” Max added.

Jenny’s lips parted, perfectly affronted. “Mr. Honer!” she called back over her shoulder. “Neil’s friends are taking my spot!”

Mr. Honer’s head nodded over their way, eyes squinting through his thick glasses. “Huh? Oh—Neil, could you come over here, please?”

Neil groaned and hauled himself up to his feet with his arms, bumping past a smirking Jenny. Max glared at Neil’s retreating back then up towards the cocky girl, who was too close to right on top of him to be comfortable. “You’re kind of a bitch. You know that, right?”

Jenny gaped down at him. “You’re kind of a dickhead; you know that, right?”

Max shrugged. “I’ve been told. Better a shitty mouth than a shitty personality.”

“You better watch your mouth, or I’ll tell on you!”

Max crossed his arms, staring off to the side disinterestedly. “I’d care more, but you’re not who I’m here for.”

She huffed. “Y—you say shitty personality like you don’t  _ have _ one!”

“Eh. What do you think, Nikki?” Max looked over to her, a miniscule grin alighting on his face.

Nikki considered the question sagely. “Well Max, I’d say you’re much more pleasant than Jenny, here.”

Jenny stamped her foot. “Mr. Honer! Neil’s exchange friends are being rude!” She turned on the ball of her foot, hair whipping around her in a twister, and stormed over towards Mr. Honer’s desk.

“You think we made a bigger problem for Neil?” Nikki asked.

Max shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t really care right now, I just wanted to get her out of my face.”

The two watched the small group animatedly argue—animatedly on everyone other than Mr. Honer’s behalf—for a brief moment before Mr. Honer quieted his students and began to speak. He pointed off towards the back of the classroom, clear opposite from where Max and Nikki still resided. Jenny leaned forward, placing her hands on the edge of his desk and whined, but ultimately trudged away. Neil made his way back towards them smirking.

“Well, now that that’s done,” Neil preened, lowering himself back down.

“God, Neil, is everyone in your class a grade A jackass?” Max responded. “Cause it’s starting to seem like it.”

“Nah, most people just leave me alone. And I leave them alone. It’s a mutual agreement.”

“I thought you were gonna try to make some fucking friends, or whatever,” Max accused. “We had a deal!”

“I’m definitely not making friends with anyone in this class,” Neil declared, glaring across at the students who had almost finished filtering into the room. “And what about you, huh? You’re hardly upholding your end of the deal!”

“I am too! This kid named Vanessa caught me putting firecrackers underneath some dickwad’s chair and now she follows me around and shit.”

“Is she cool?” asked Nikki.

“Kinda? I mean, I don’t dislike her or anything, but she’s more the lookout type. I wouldn’t like, take her in with me. Not that she minds—I’ve hardly said more than forty words to her over the past week and she still keeps  _ chattering _ at me.”

“Are you her little kid idol or something, Max?” Neil chuckled, hand to his mouth.

“I think so? The dickwad I firecrackered came after her a few days ago for laughing and she kicked him in the shins and cussed him out—it was actually pretty great.”

“How old is she?”

“I think she’s seven? She’s in third grade.”

“You’re  _ hardly _ upholding your end, then! A little follower is different from a friend,” Neil chastised.

“I’m still working on it.”

The bell rang again, lopping off their conversation. Mr. Honer called all conversations to a close, trudging towards his projector cart. “We’ll be continuing our studies with  _ x _ and  _ y _ today. Get out a piece of scrap paper and answer these as warm up.” He put a sheet with problems under the camera, the feed grainy and blurred with the corners cut off in darkness, the numbers barely visible. 

Neil pulled up his binder and ripped out three pages of loose leaf, uncaring that they could now never be linked back in. He passed them to Max and Nikki accordingly. Nikki hesitantly dragged the paper in front of her, eyes darting between the screen and her page, her pencil flicking about in her hand and rapping lightly against the table. She leaned over, putting her hand on Neil’s desk to draw his attention, and whispered, “Why are there letters in math?”

Neil looked up from his half finished first problem to see Nikki worrying her lip, pencil tight in her hand in front of a blank page. Max was leaned back in his seat with his arms bundled around him; his paper and pencil sat askew, unattended on his desk.

Neil scooted forwards in his seat, pushing himself closer to Nikki. “If there are any letters in math, they’re variables. They aren’t really letters; they’re actually numbers that we don’t know yet. See how all the answers are already filled in?” He jabbed up at the screen with the butt of his pencil. “That’s because we aren’t supposed to figure out the answer; we’re supposed to figure out the variable.”

Nikki’s eyes flickered across the screen, vying for something that would cause it all to make sense. “But… what are the numbers? How are we supposed to figure it out?”

“There’s only one answer, because only one number will make the number on the end true. If you put in any random old number as the variable, it wouldn’t match the problem.”

“This is silent work,” Mr. Honer called out, his gaze settled on Nikki and Neil. Reluctantly, Neil drew back to his own paper.

“But Neil, I still don’t know what to do,” Nikki mouthed, even quieter than before. Her hand was stuck to the edge of his desk.

“I’ll explain it in a little bit,” Neil answered, risking barely a glance upwards towards her.

“Max?” Nikki pleaded, turning to him.

“Don’t look at me,” Max shot back. “Fuck math.” He returned to his disinterested gazing.

“Nikki. I promise I will try to explain it later.”

Nikki sighed and nodded in low spirits, retracting her hand to her lap and gazing sightlessly at the paper for the remainder of the quiet time. Her legs were bouncing restlessly beneath the table the whole while.

 

* * *

 

Neil led the two back out into the hallway, sharply inserting them into the flow. It was much calmer than it was the first time they exited, as they were up and out much faster the second time. “Okay, so I know math was kind of rough—”

“Nothing like being told to do a bunch of shit you don’t know for an hour.”

“—but the next class will be a walk in the park,” Neil promised, rolling over Max’s comment.

“Is it English?” guessed Nikki.

“Nope. It’s time for the worst class of the day—science!”

“Huh?!” gasped both his friends.

“What the hell, Neil? Science is literally all you talk about!” exclaimed Max.

“That’s right! I talk about  _ science _ ! This is science  _ class _ , which is hardly even the same thing in our underfunded and mediocre public school system that refuses to teach to anyone other than the lowest common denominator. At this point, one of life’s greatest mysteries is how they managed to rummage together enough  _ nonsense _ to fill one hour of class time five days a week! I truly don’t know how they manage to pass this bullshit off as  _ learning _ !” He threw his hands forward angrily. People were actually moving aside for him a bit, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“Just because it’s easy for you doesn’t mean it’s easy for everyone else, Neil,” Nikki harrumphed.

“No, no, you’ll see. We’re doing  _ meteorology _ right now—if you can even call it that. It’s basically just  _ let’s learn the cloud names for two weeks _ . All we’ll be doing in class is writing down everything Ms. Newberry writes down on the overhead and maybe  _ drawing a nice picture _ .”

“Ooh! I know all the clouds!” Nikki shouted, waving a hand about. “There are puffy ones, the grey ones, the flat ones, and the wispy ones!”

“They have actual names, Nikki,” Max interjected.

“See?! It would take me  _ ten minutes _ for me to teach Nikki all the cloud names. Science is a clever system that adheres to patterns and is designed specifically so that it can all be understood easily. It should  _ never _ take  _ two weeks _ to learn the names of things!”

“Oh! I can hear Neil coming down the hall!” cheered someone inside of the room they were turning into. Walking in revealed a tall, red haired lady standing next to the door on their immediate left. “Hello Neil, it’s nice to see you today! Who are your friends?”

Neil spared a passing glance at her while continuing onto his table spot. “This is Max and Nikki. You would know that they’re daily exchange students from other middle schools if you checked your email this morning.”

“Oh come on, Neil, you know teachers never check their emails,” she kidded. “Today we’re taking some notes for the first half, and for the last half hour we’re going to be making cloud pictures!”

“I told you,” Neil muttered, plopping down in his seat.

“Just think about the fact this is our last class before lunch,” Max suggested.

“That’s all I do every day. Hey, Ms. Newberry?” Neil called. “Can Rebecca and Haley sit somewhere else today? I’m supposed to be by Max and Nikki all day.”

Ms. Newberry straightened up from her greeting post. “Of course! I’ll let them know as they walk in.” She returned to watching the door for more students.

Nikki pursed her lips, looking between the smiling Ms. Newberry and Neil’s dissatisfied grimace. “She seems really nice, Neil; why don’t you like her?”

“I’m pretty sure the years of teaching sixth grade science has rotted away any real knowledge of hers. And I’d like her more if she didn’t treat everybody— _ including me _ —like we’re all five. At this point, I’m pretty sure I know more than her!”

“She kind of reminds me of David,” Max commented.

“David never insinuated I didn’t know the  _ periodic table _ . When I told her I already knew all of it, and she still made me ‘learn’ the first ten with the rest of the class. She thinks I’m just as stupid as the rest of these shitheads!”

Nikki’s line of contemplation turned around into a displeased curve. “That’s pretty dumb.”

“I know, right?! The very least she could do is let me tinker around with some elements in the back while everyone else does their elementary bullshit. I bet she doesn’t trust me not to make  _ chlorine gas _ .”

“Would you?” asked Max.

“Not on accident!”

“Well, we can’t do anything for you there, buddy.” Max propped his chin up on his palm.

“I know, I know. Let’s just get through the class. We can at least clear one problem.” Neil’s gaze narrowed, prompting Nikki and Max to look back over towards the door.

“Hello, Randall! I’m glad to have you in class!” Ms. Newberry smiled as the boy wordlessly trudged over to his seat. “And you too, Caitlin and Rodney!” Two of his cronies swaggered along behind him, Caitlin tossing her fair hair over her shoulder.

Max tracked their movements along. “That’s him?” 

“Yep.”

“And those two others?”

“That’s Caitlin, his girlfriend, and Rodney, his best friend. The other one isn’t in this class.”

As if feeling the three sets of eyes, Randall glanced over, chin tilting slightly to catch all of them in his vision. He smirked, smiling eyes narrowing, and mouthed, “Wait.”

Nikki laid her hand on top of Neil’s clenched fist. “Not too much longer, Neil.”

Max sneered, nose crinkling in disgust. “He’ll regret ever messing with you.”

Neil swallowed. “Right.”

 

* * *

 

“I still don’t know why you don’t like this class, Neil. Okay, sure, you don’t get to do any of your nerdy science, but we hardly have to do anything at all!” Nikki declared, walking back over to their table more with white and blue papers in hand.

“Everything takes three times longer than it needs to, Nikki. It just took us thirty minutes to write  _ less than a page _ ,” griped Neil.

“Yeah, but we got to talk the whole time!”

“Well, it’s a lot less fun when you don’t have anyone to talk to!”

Nikki deflated. “I guess.” She slumped back down into her seat, laying her papers on the table. A pair of scissors, a glue stick, and a marker clattered down next to it.

“And I’m not here to have  _ fun _ . I’m here to learn science—not that that’s ever going to happen in a million years. If I wanted to do this—” Neil held up his partially started sky “—I’d do it in art class.”

“I don’t know, this is still way better than math class,” Max shrugged, carefully cutting out a shape in his black construction paper. With one last snip the shape fell out, and he slid it to the correct spot on his blood red sky.

“Max, you’re supposed to use blue and white paper, not red and black,” Neil critiqued.

“Contrast, Neil. And for all you know, this is how I view the world.”

“Sometimes the sky is red and clouds are black!” Nikki supplied, squirting a generous helping of glue onto her page for her cloud.

“I can imagine absolutely zero scenarios in which cirrus clouds are black,” Neil deadpanned.

“Which ones are those again?” questioned Max.

“The wispy ones,” Neil answered, not taking his eye off the path of his scissors.

“I’m sure there’s some occasion.”

“Look! All of mine gonna have faces!” Nikki grinned, still dragging her marker across her page. She had only cut out a few so far, but faces of various expressions were scattered across the white space. Most were happy, a few were sad or blank—a single enraged face claimed a large portion of the page.

“Is that the cumulonimbus?” Neil questioned, pointing to the angry face.

“No, it’s the big grey puffy one that makes thunderstorms!”

Neil sighed. “Well, all of  _ mine _ are going to be labeled.” Neil finished cutting out all of his shapes out and began gluing them down.

“Oops!” A hand brandishing a bold red crayon shot in from out of nowhere and raked a long, thick line down the center of Neil’s page. All three kids jolted, searching upwards to find Randall drawing his hand back. “My hand slipped. Guess you’ll have to start over.” He smirked and sauntered away, not withholding his chuckle.

Neil returned his gaze to his page to find one of his cumulus clouds mangled beyond repair by the stroke, crumpled and ripped. Beyond that, an irreparable red line marred his page.

Max hissed, whipping his head back to glare daggers into Randall’s retreating form. “He’s lucky we’re already going to get him later, or I’d rip his dick off right now.” Nikki growled in agreement.

Neil sneered, peeling the ruined cloud off with two fingers. “Whatever.” He cut an new cloud out easily.

“But Neil, now you have to redo the whole thing!” Nikki mourned.

“No I don’t.” Neil glued the cloud down and continued with the other ones.

“What do you mean? There’s a big red  _ line _ down the front of your page!” she argued.

“Yeah, it’s looks a little weird with only one,” Neil agreed lightly.

“Are you just gonna leave it like that?” she continued.

“I guess it doesn’t really matter if you don’t care,” said Max.

“Not quite.” Neil got up and strolled over towards the arts and crafts table, Max and Nikki carefully watching his back. After picking around for a few seconds, he held up a red crayon for both to see. He strolled back over, blatantly waving his newly acquired utensil towards Randall’s table. 

“What are you gonna do with that?” Nikki questioned as Neil sat back down.

“It doesn’t look so strange if there’s more than one.” Neil proceeded to finish off Randall’s line, bringing it down a bit farther to where Neil had drawn land. He scratched more on, radiating outwards towards the fringes of his paper so the ends all arced across, Randall’s line at the centerpiece. “There.” He shaded the bottoms of all of his clouds.

“It’s a… sunset,” announced Nikki.

“That’s a pretty shitty sunset,” summarized Max.

“Who cares? Good enough for this.” Neil picked his finished work up and turned about in his chair to where Randall was silently scrutinizing them. He sneered, wagged the paper in his direction, and stuck out his tongue, enticing a fuming frown.

“Well. If he wasn’t going to go looking for you at lunch before, he is now,” smirked Max.

“That’s the plan,” Neil responded, his incessant waving of his bloody red sunset a proud display for Randall’s whole table to see. As it was, lunch would go off without a hitch.

 

* * *

 

“That bitch thinks that just because there’s two extra meatbags hanging around him, we’re gonna let him get off today,” Randall snarled to his friends, all of them falling in formation behind him. “We gotta find him.”

“He wasn’t in the lunchroom, though,” Rodney mourned.

“Yeah, so he’s gotta be outside or something! Maybe he got clearance to show those two midgets around.”

“I didn’t see any of them on my way from English,” informed Cathy, skipping along behind the group in efforts to keep up with their faster strides.

“That’s why we’re checking  _ this _ hallway,” Randall snapped.

“Why do we need to find him, anyway? It would be really bad if the other two you saw reported us,” Cathy noted, hands worrying in front of her chest.

“Shut  _ up _ , Cathy!”

“Sorry, Randall.”

“He was being all smug today because he thought he could hold off on punishment until tomorrow. So we gotta find him today!”

“Right?” Caitlin rolled her eyes. “It was making me sick.” She crossed her arms and stepped a little faster, sidling up alongside Randall.

“Don’t worry about it, buddy—we’ll find him,” Rodney chimed in, running up to slap a hand on Randall’s back.

“We better,” Randall sighed, slinging his arms around his two best and pulling them to walk alongside him.

“Randall!” Cathy gasped from behind him.

“What is it, Cathy?” Randall hissed.

“It’s Neil!”

“What?!” Their group skid to a halt, rushing backwards to crowd around Cathy and her pointed finger. Looking off down a narrow side hall, Neil stood all by his lonesome at the very end. Glancing sideways and seeing his tormentor’s attention, he yelped and shot off, the squeak of his sneakers echoing down the hall.

“We got him! Nice job, Cathy!” Randall smacked Cathy on the shoulder and took off with Caitlin and Rodney on his heels, paying no mind to Cathy’s frazzled breath of ‘well… yeah.’

The faster three rounded the corner at a sprint, just in time to see the heavy door to the outside slam shut, Neil’s shoes clipping around the corner past the glass. Randall crashed into it, heaved it open, and rushed through the narrow gap, leaving the others to slip through behind him. “NEIL!” Randall roared, barrelling around the corner. He expected to see the plane of Neil’s back still futilely trying to escape, but the boy had stopped and turned around. His form quaked, chest heaving, but his feet were spread apart and fisted hands were thrown down at his sides. Beside him was the scrawny brown kid in the blue hoodie Neil had been toting around all day.

Randall could hear all three sets of feet approaching behind him, scuffing to a quiet stop. “What, you think this random punk is gonna save you or some shit?” Randall called, cupping his hands. Neil didn’t respond; he just stood there, mouth closed.

It was Scrawny that stalked towards Randall, putting himself well in front of Neil. Each step of his was a stomp. The baggy hoodie hid any tension in his body, and his pockets hid any fists his hands might have been making, but if the stormy expression he donned was anything to go by, the kid almost had electricity running through his bones. His eyes bored directly into Randall’s. “I think you have one chance to back the fuck off, Randall.” Despite the fact that all four of the kids in front of him were at least three inches taller, he stood like they all ought to have been cowering at his feet.

Rodney put a hand on Randall’s shoulder and leaned up to mutter in his ear, “Does something about this seem weird to you?”

“Yeah, so? You think we can’t kick their asses?”

Rodney backed off, hands in the air.

Cathy peeked out from the side and spat, “Bring it on, fuckwad and fuckwad junior, we’ll kick you into the ground.”

Scrawny cocked his head. “Really? Cause I don’t think you know what you’re messing with!” he cackled, elbows tensing up, a strangely skewed smile sitting on his face. “I don’t think they know why we’re here! Isn’t that a  _ riot _ , Neil?!”

Randall looked past Scrawny to spy Neil smirking, more cocky than he had a right to, arms loose and crossed. “Hilarious, Max.”

“Listen here, you little twerps,” Randall hissed, pushing forwards a few steps. “I don’t know who you think you are—I don’t know who you think  _ you _ are, Neil, acting all big when you know I could break your ugly face in half, and I don’t know who you think  _ you _ are, Scrawny, coming in here out of nowhere all pissed.”

“Oh, I’m not from nowhere, Randall,” Scrawny shot back. “I  _ came _ here. You see, Neil here is my friend, and we’re not happy hearing how he’s been treated.” He said it like a challenge—like it deserved their wariness.

Randall barked a big laugh. “Oh, that’s what this is?” He loosed another, hands over his stomach as he tossed his head back. “Man, our pansy here actually has friends? Of course they’re from other schools, though! If you thought you could get your buddy off just because you came here and tried to threaten us, you got another thing coming, Scrawny,” he revealed, tone dipping. Randall started a slow pace over, the shadow of his hulking form rising over Max and wholly encompassing him. “Your friend ain’t  _ nothin _ . You ain’t nothin either, kid, if you think you can come into my school and tell me how to run this place.”

Scrawny bared his teeth in a manner too savage to be called a smile. “You can’t do anything to me. You can’t  _ touch _ me. And now I’m telling you, if you touch Neil ever again, I’ll come after you, and you can bet I won’t stop until I’m assured that your life has been  _ decimated _ .”

“You,” Randall growled, “are just a little psycho that thinks you’re something more than a three foot nothing nobody who’s got big talk. Your friend has been a piece of shit beneath by boot since the day he met me, and you can’t change that. Now you’re going to take that back  before I show you what a little bitch you are.”

Max’s head was tilted back to level his gaze right at Randall’s, narrowed and steely, cold above his still clenched teeth. “Bite me.”

Randall stepped forward, leg reeling back to punt the little fucker into the next day. Max blasted forward and rammed into Randall, throwing him backwards. Breath rushed out of him, small fists and elbows digging into his stomach from the canon ball of a body check, and he was nearly knocked on his ass. Hands supported his back, holding him up and righting him from the blow. He coughed once into his hand, recovering rapidly, and bellowed, “You wanna fight?! Cause we can fight!” He rose his hands up as if he were amassing an army, feeling Caitlin, Rodney, and Cathy come up to his sides.

Max snarled, thrusting his hand into his pocket and whipping it out sideways with a snap. A switchblade flicked out clean and sharp, long enough to kill. “Let’s go, Randall! Come at me, fucker!” He rushed them, swiping madly at the air in wild strokes, and off-kilter grin on his face.

“Holy shit!” Rodney screeched, grabbing Randall and Caitlin by the shoulders and hauling them backwards as they all attempted to scramble out of the way. “He’s actually insane! He’s actually fucking insane!”

“You still think I’m playing games?!” Max thundered, jabbing at them sharply with the tip of the knife, up towards their noses. “You think I’m messing around?! I will cut you, bitch, if you ever try to come at Neil again, you understand me?!” Behind Max, Neil was cackling loudly, grinning a Cheshire grin.

Randall had his hands between himself and the knife, violently shaking his head. “You two are fucking crazy, man, crazy! Cathy, go get a teacher or something! Go get a teacher!”

Cathy nodded, fast, incessant shakes of her head. She stumbled back over her feet in efforts to run back to the door even as she was still facing the brightly gleaming knife, unyielding in its pointed path. She eventually wrenched her focus around, running and then sprinting towards the door.

Max inhaled deeply, holding the air for just a beat, before bellowing as loud as possible, “NIKKI!”

Cathy flew, dead set on her destination like the end of the rainbow off in the distance. Then, from the opposite corner Cathy was running towards, a turquoise and red blur shot out from around the corner, scrambling at full tilt on all fours, barking and snarling like a dog. Cathy put on the breaks and backpedaled over herself, shrieking, “It’s the other one!” She fumbled all the way backwards until she rammed into the other three, pressing against them. Nikki stopped in front of her, snapping and gnashing her teeth rabidly. “Oh my god, they’re gonna kill us!”

“We aren’t gonna kill you!” Max snapped. “Because you’re never gonna so much as look sideways at Neil ever again, right?!”

“What the fuck is wrong with you, man?!” Randall screamed, pressing back into his friends. “You’ve got a fucking knife!”

“Oh my Lord, listen to my words!” Max annunciated, shaking his knife for emphasis. “If you don’t leave my friend alone, I’ll fuck you up! It’s that simple!”

“That’s messed up! That’s messed up; that’s so messed up!”

“Dickwad! You think you’re better? You think four on one is a better deal? You think you’re so good? You’re sick! It takes a goddamn knife for you to leave someone the fuck alone—which you still haven’t agreed to! Say it! Fucking say it, asswipe!” Max stomped forward an extra few steps, blade whistling through the air back and forth. Randall shoved backwards even harder into his friends, all of them tumbling to the ground. On the other side, Cathy was pushed towards Nikki’s planted hands, who drove her back again with her barks and snarls.

Behind him, Randall could hear Cathy beginning to sob in loud, heaving breaths. He began shaking his head, eyes stinging madly and the world flipping and blurring as the knife and Max’s murderous face loomed in his vision, his eyes sharp like two more blades. “We’ll leave him alone! We won’t pick on Neil, we’ll leave him alone, we’ll never look at him again,” Randall promised, fingernails digging into his skin just to hold himself together, curling back against his other friends because the only thing he could still see crystal clear was the shimmering steel of the knife poised towards his nose, its wielder no more than three steps away. “We won’t, we won’t, we won’t, we won’t.”

“Good,” Max soothed, satisfied. He lowered his knife slowly, folding the blade back in and stashing it in his pocket. “I’m glad you could come see it my way. Because you see, I take the wellbeing of my friends  _ very _ seriously. I would hate to hear from Neil that you’ve been picking on him after all this.”

Randall sniffed, looking up at the lunatic from his place on the ground. Neil had come to stand next to Max, an arm slung over Max’s shoulder. His former victim squinted down at him, his expression unable to settle on lording but nowhere near pitying, either. “Y—you three are insane.”

“I’m glad you think that. And remember, if we hear any word from Neil about you messing with him again, we’ll have to come back here. Since you don’t want that, you’ll keep your mouth shut about this. Right?” Max relayed cheerfully.

Randall swallowed, voice wobbling. “Right.”

“I truly am overjoyed we reached a settlement. We’ll be going to lunch, now. See you in English class, Randall, Caitlin, and Rodney! Real nice meeting you, Cathy.” Still near knocking shoulders, Max and Neil swung around the four, joining up with Nikki on the other side and heading off back towards the doors. After many seconds, the sounds of their voices faded, and the heavy doors to the inside swung shut. It was silent once again.

All around Randall, his friends were seated. Against his shoulder, Caitlin buried her face and began to weep.

**Author's Note:**

> I am displeased with this just take it. I've been sitting on it for like two weeks trying and failing to edit it so just take it.
> 
> It was a known fact between my friends and I in middle school that the bells sounded like they beat a bag of cats with a baseball bat whenever they needed classes to switch. Also, middle schoolers couldn't walk down hallways in an organized fashion to save their fucking lives.


End file.
